Falgout floodgate plans move forward

Wednesday

Aug 1, 2012 at 7:06 PM

Preliminary design is beginning on a long-awaited floodgate that could eventually help to close the Dularge levee system.

Nikki BuskeyStaff Writer

Preliminary design is beginning on a long-awaited floodgate that could eventually help to close the Dularge levee system.Terrebonne Levee District officials voted this month to move forward on a design of the West Dularge floodgate, planned to block off Falgout Canal on the west side of the community. The floodgate is being planned as part of a final push to complete the scaled-down local Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane project system under construction by the Levee District.But the project isn’t a sure thing. Getting the project built quickly will depend on whether voters approve a 1/2-cent sales tax proposal set for this year’s Dec. 8 ballot. That tax would raise money to finish building the local Morganza project up to 10-feet-tall from Dularge to Pointe-aux-Chenes, pay to build the Dularge floodgate and build a new levee system protecting Bayou Black from hurricane flooding.“This is all contingent on the tax passing,” said Councilman Danny Babin, who represents Dularge on the Parish Council. Babin said he supports the tax. “I want to see a true levee alignment and to see that we as a parish can do something to close that system (in Dularge).”The proposed1/2-cent sales tax, which would expire after 28 years, would raise about $11.2 million a year in Terrebonne. The Terrebonne Levee District plans to sell bonds, which could raise about $150 million immediately to pay for the levee project. It would use the tax money to repay the debt over about 25 years.Dularge is one of three Terrebonne communities not included in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approved Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee system and the most-populated community left out of the system. But Terrebonne Levee Director Reggie Dupre said the Levee District has committed much of its non-Morganza resources to beefing up Dularge’s levees.“The reason the Terrebonne Levee District spent so much of its non-Morganza funds on Dularge is that we don’t want that lower part of the community abandoned,” Dupre said.The community is mostly encircled by levees. On the west side, the floodgate would connect the northern Dr. Beatrous Road levee with the Brady Canal levee to the south. On the east side, a levee protects lower Dularge from Falgout Canal south to the bottom of the community. The parish is planning to complete the system with a $13 million levee protecting east Dularge from Falgout Canal north.The new floodgate would be placed in Falgout Canal west of the Falgout Canal Marina and is expected to cost as much as $33 million.It would be modeled after barge floodgates built to block Placid and Bush canals in Chauvin, rising 18 feet above the water line. Because Falgout Canal brings much-needed freshwater east into Terrebonne marshes from the Atchafalaya River, the opening on the floodgate will have to be much larger to allow for water flow, Dupre said. It may be as wide as 150-190 feet to provide sufficient flow. The wider floodgate will also ensure that water flowing down Falgout Canal doesn’t bottleneck to a dangerous velocity at the floodgate, creating problems for boaters at nearby Falgout Canal Marina.Babin said he supports finding a way to close the Dularge system but wants to keep discussions open about the location of the floodgate, perhaps looking at blocking off Bayou Dularge to the north.

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.